Interview with Chelsea Kane from Baby Daddy

Tonight, the new show Baby Daddy premieres on ABC Family, and after seeing the pilot, I can say this is a show you cannot miss! Ben is forced to juggle his bartending bachelor ways around to accomidate his daughter, who was left on his doorstep. He does this with the help of his amazing friends.

We were lucky enough to have the adorable Chelsea Kane, who plays Riley, take some time to talk about the show, her character, and just life in general. Let’s see what this up-and-coming star had to say.

Here are a few of my questions, and then we’ll take a look at what my colleagues contributed.

Megan: What was it about the role of Riley that interested you?

Chelsea: I loved the character of Riley the minute I read the script. I think the thing that first interested me overall was the entire Baby Daddy concept. I thought it was just absolutely adorable, and the script is really funny, and it’s very rare that you get a script where you’re actually laughing out loud just at the lines on the paper, and I definitely had that with Baby Daddy, so immediately, I was hooked.

I always love those characters…these women characters in comedy, women who are able to make fun of themselves. I grew up admiring Goldie Hawn and Jennifer Aniston and Debra Messing, and Riley is definitely in that category of women. She was overweight in high school and kind of butch in high school, and they make fun of her for that, but she’s also a really strong confident, powerful young woman. She’s going to law school. I just love those kinds of characters, just those girl next door, fun, funny, together women, so I was thrilled when they offered me the role of Riley, because she was right up my alley.

Megan: What’s been your favorite moment filming so far?

Chelsea: Oh, gosh, it’s hard to pick. I think probably some of my favorite moments—we’re such a tight knit cast. We really got lucky that everyone hit it off completely, and I think that’s so rare and so special. So when you get us all together in a group, it’s hilarity in twos, and we actually just shot an episode where we’re all in different Christmas costumes, and just the laughs behind the scenes and watching me walk around in a giant gingerbread costume was pretty funny, so we have a good time.

On interacting with the baby

Chelsea: I do have a lot of interaction with the baby, which is amazing. Working with a baby is so much fun. First of all, having a little one around just brings such a light to the set and such a different energy. It’s really fun to watch all these big crew guys and these cute, hot young actors kind of go out of their way to make this little girl smile. They do like goo-goo, ga-ga faces, and it definitely makes our set a really happy place.

Riley, my character, interacts with her a lot. I’m first kind of roped into the whole situation because the boys want a maternal instinct. They need a girl’s point of view and perspective on how to take care of this baby when she first shows up on their doorstep, and so I come over to try to help out and, of course, fall in love with Emma. She’s adorable, and so it’s nice. It takes a village. Everyone on the show has a lot of interaction with the baby, because we are a little family. We’re all raising this little girl together, even though we’re not directly related to her in some ways.

But behind the scenes, it was really interesting for me, too, because I had never held a baby before we started shooting the show, so that was terrifying, and it’s been a real learning curve for me getting comfortable with the twins. But now, I just love them, and now I never want to let them go. We have such a good time when the babies are around.

On who the show will appeal to

Chelsea: I think you’ll really enjoy it as a young parent, too, but it definitely is a show for the entire family. In our live audience, I can sit there and look out, and we have little kids. We have people on the show that bring their little ones or people on our crew that have little kids there up to my grandparents have come to the show; and you see older people in our audience, and they’re loving it, because it’s just dealing with life at every age.

Of course, our core group are these 20-somethings growing up in the city trying to raise this little girl, but I think parents will enjoy it, because they get to laugh at all the mistakes that kids make when they think how easy parenting is.

Some of my favorite moments are in the first couple episodes, when the boys are buying food for the first time, and they’re buying solid food or they’re taking them out for the entire day and they bring one bottle and one diaper, thinking that that will be enough. It’s really cute to watch them learn, and I think adults will like that, and I think people my age, college age and older and high school will enjoy it, because we’re their peers and it also doesn’t suck to look at the three lead guys, they’re adorable; and little kids will like it. It’s colorful. There are a lot of funny moments. It’s all about love and family and friendship, and I think that’s what’s so nice about sitcom, it’s an escape. You get to enjoy that half hour of your evening.

On her career transitions

Chelsea: I feel like I’ve been very blessed and this transition has been very easy for me and exactly the way I wanted it to go. I loved being on Disney Channel. It was the best time of my life. It was such a wonderful place to grow up. I loved Jonas and the Jonas brothers and everyone that I was able to work with over there. I just feel really lucky that I’ve been able to kind of stay in the “Mouse House.”

I went from Disney right into Dancing with the Stars on ABC, and then from there, I started working with ABC Family almost immediately. I love that, because I love my fans over at Disney Channel, and I think we’ve been through a lot together, and I’m so happy that we’re all able to continue on the same path together.

They were able to watch me on Dancing, and now they’re able to watch me in another family friendly, fun show that’s where I get to play a little older. I’m excited that I’m not playing high school anymore. You’ll see scenes when we’re in a bar, and I’m holding a glass of champagne, and that’s really funny for me to being doing it on camera for the first time; but I’m so happy that my transition has been as smooth as it has gone, because I know it’s a really scary territory to step into once you’re out of Disney Channel. Yes, I hope my fans are able to come on another adventure with me, because they’re the best fans in the world.

That’s all for our chat with Chelsea. Be sure to tune in to ABC Family, Wednesdays at 8:30/7:30c to watch her on Baby Daddy.